art of experiential design

BAT BEATS
Bacardi

Austin, USA

SUMMARY

We turned the movements of 100,000 wild bats into an exclusive music track at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas for Bacardi. Using bespoke motion tracking technology, we used the swarming of the bats to trigger unique beats and remix the track’s tone and tempo as they flew.

DETAIL

One of Austin’s most famous natural occurrences is the swarming and murmuration of bat colonies by the Congress Avenue Bridge.

This is the largest urban bat colony in the world and can reach up to 2 million at the peak of summer. Mr President and Bacardi asked us to find a way to interact with these bats. We made a specially coded program that was able to track the bats and create a duet with the bats using their motion. The project received a great amount of online attention.